CL Educate Ltd, formerly known as Career Launcher India Ltd, has acquired Noida-based G.K. Publications Pvt Ltd, a publisher of competitive exams books. The deal will help CL Educate (one of India’s oldest test preparation chains) in backward integration and content pool expansion.
Founded in 1994, G.K. Publications is engaged in publishing books, study resources, guides, sample test papers and question papers for professional exams like GATE, IES, IAS, CAT, IIT, GRE and SAT, among others. The company annually publishes over 500 titles for these exams.
G.K. Publications has on board a team of 50 people, led by Rakesh Mittal and Poonam Mittal. In addition, it has a 150-strong distributors’ network and a 750-strong dealers’ network. The current deal will help CL Educate expand further into focus areas like civil entrance exams, GATE and PSU exams. Aarayaa Advisory was advisor to G.K. Publications on the transaction.
“G.K. Publication currently sells around 600,000 titles every year to about 200,000 students. Most of the students who buy these books are ready targets for the test prep value-added services from the CL portfolio. Even if we are able to offer some kind of value-added services to about 20 per cent of those students, it would dramatically enhance CL’s reach and student penetration, adding significantly to CL’s top and bottom lines,” said chairman Satya Narayanan R in an earlier blog post.
Career Launcher is one of the first education companies to raise venture funding in India. While its original investor Intel Capital has exited, current shareholders include Gaja Capital Partners, Edelweiss Capital and Granite Hill. Last year, CL Educate said that it would raise more funding, either through a strategic sale or a public offering.
